Reading the OT as Jesus Did – An Act 3 Biblical Forum

The Act 3 Biblical Forum presents “Reading the Old Testament as Jesus Did” with Dr. Peter Enns, October 30-31, 2009, at the Holiday Inn, Carol Stream, IL. Read more >>>

Harvie Conn: Some Rhetorical Questions on Biblical Theology

Is it possible that biblical theology can provide a way of escape from the inherited dangers of “systematic theology”? Can we find here that sense of freedom, of openness to new approaches to the Bible as the Scriptures are brought into contact and confrontation with the world’s diverse cultural and social contexts? Is “systematic theology” [...]

Harvie Conn: Contemporary Contextualization Follows the NT Hermeneutical Pattern

We now suggest that eschatology, oriented toward the central significance of the coming of Christ in the history of redemption, provides us with more than a static theological formulation. It has deep and dynamic implications for the methodological significance of contextualization. It reminds us, to quote Vos, that “we ourselves live just as much in [...]

Harvie Conn on the interplay between Biblical Theology, Christ, the Already/Not Yet, Humility, and Contextualization

Biblical theology reminds us of the Christ-centered heart of the Scripture, of its history as the history of redemption. Theologizing, as the application of that redemptive history, then becomes eschatological in a deeper sense than we usually think. it is an eschatology defined not only with reference to the second coming of Christ but inclusive [...]

Harvie Conn on the Dynamic Character of Revealed Truth

Biblical theology’s focus on revelation as a historical activity underlines the dynamic, rather than static, character of revealed truth. John Murray speaks of the “tendency to abstraction” on the part of systematic theology, the tendency to historicize, to arrive at “timeless” formulations in the sense of topically oriented universals. This danger becomes even more real [...]

Conn Citing Bavinck on Calvinism and Multi-formity

Harvie Conn citing Herman Bavink, “The Future of Calvinism,” The Presbyterian and Reformed Review 5 (1894): 23 “All the misery of the Presbyterian Churches is owing to their striving to consider the Reformation as completed, and to allow no further development of what has been begun by the labor of the Reformers…. Calvinism wishes no [...]

Harvie Conn and Reformed Theology

As I look back on my student years at Westminster Theological Seminary (1985-89), especially as the years pass, I am beginning to count it more and more of a privilege to have been at Westminster and under Harvie Conn’s influence. Truth be told, I left Westminster for Harvard more or less focused on learning as [...]

My Trip to Seoul, Korea (May 5-11, 2008)

I realize I haven’t posted for a while. I’ve been a bit busy. I have a lot of back-logged ideas for posts here, but I just got back from a week long trip to Seoul. Now, my intention remains to keep this website as a place for biblical theological reflections in our contemporary world, and [...]